Still battling the sniffles a bit, but everyone's much better today. 

Millet is the medium of the day:

Sisters look on:

He spotted the camera, and wants to "smile":

In other news: I've somehow missed answering a few questions in the comments, so I'll try to catch up and do a Q&A post soon.  :)

A spicy red letter day at that!  He decorated his letter "A" in "spicies" (aka crushed cayenne).

Reading lessons with my distractable chatter box:

Keianna is such fun. Listening to her read to me is quite an experience, as her brain is just so busy.  In front of her is the sentence, "Now the old man is not cold and the goat is not cold."

Keianna will read, "Now" and then interrupt herself, "It is almost lunch time, I smell soup!"

Then she proceeds with, "The old man" and looks up again, "Mommy, you are not old. Daddy is a little bit old. Kieran isn’t old."

I redirect her to the page and she continues, "...is not cold and the goat" Uh, oh, she looks up again, "After this we will do handwriting!" And back to the book, "is not cold."

Whew. Now we go back to the beginning and I have her reread it without the sidetracked interjections. 

When instructed to not interrupt her own reading and stay focused on the page she can usually do it, but if I forget to give this particular instruction, her entire lesson continues in the same amusing fashion.

We played a fun game this past week to help Keianna on phonics (and maybe help a couple of her big sisters with spelling retention too!)

I took out the Distar Phonics vowel cards, and handed everyone but Keegan (Ken played too) a vowel represented on two cards, short and long.  They would hold up the short vowel (the one without a line over it), and say the sound.  Then they'd put on the hat (representing the line on the long vowel) switch cards, and be joined by Keegan, our "helper vowel" who played the silent vowel that helps the one with a hat say its name.

Afterward we  talked about how sit becomes sIte, if you put a "hat" (line) over the "i" and add a silent helper on the end.

It was silly and fun, and I'm not sure whether it accomplished anything, but we giggled and giggled.

If you look closely you can see that Kendra (in the hat) is being mauled or "helped" by Keegan in the picture here.   I was too busy laughing to take good photos.

Keianna is moving merrily through her 100 Easy lessons, and now sounding out words she sees everywhere. Sounding out the pizza box, she knew that our junkfood was, "Hot 'N Ready!" It is such fun to see the pieces come together.

Slowly comprehension is coming too. Several weeks ago a lesson would go as follows:

Keianna sounds out slowly, "Thhhaaat raaaaaaaat is saaaaaaaaaaad." Then a little faster. Then she'd read the sentence again, finally at normal speed. Next I say, "Great! You just read, "That rat is sad!" Let's read it together. We read it together.

Finally, I ask, "So, what animal do you think the story is about?" Keianna, "A kitty cat."

Me, "Hmmm... let's read it again." (Keianna would read it, then I would repeat it.)

Me, "There is a rat in the story. Was he happy or sad?" Keianna, "He was happy!"

Me, "Well, the sentance said, "That rat is sad." Why do you think he was happy?"

Keianna, "He liked to smile and squeak a lot."

This past week or so though, she's actually made connections with what she just read! Today she read "The man sat on the goat. The goat can not see."  After reading it just once, she said, "Poor goat, the man might squash him, and he would say, "ow!"

So fun to watch the progress.

To get a little extra blending practice, Keianna is working with some cards that use the same funky but effective Distar alphabet that she's learning in her  "100 Easy Lessons".   (Before the book is done, she'll transition to reading without the phonetic cues.)

Here she is sounding out the cards:

And back to the book again:

One more picture, just because it is SO Keianna:

She's starting at about the age I finished the book with the older two, which presents some extra hurdles. (I find that learning things like this is a bit more natural at a younger age when their minds are wired to absorb language so easily.  Somehow it seems to change near age 3 1/2.)  The challenges are mostly just in my needing to think through ways to better present the material; Nothing major, and probably good to keep me on my toes as a teacher!

With characteristic KeiannaSpunk, she's doing great, and so thrilled at being big and learning to read!  (She told Kieran all about it.  "Kieran, I am big, Kieran.  I am learning to read.  Yes, I am.  I do reading lessons.  I can read, "sssiiiittttt"..."sit"...yes!  I read, Kieran!  Mommy will teach you when you are big..."  )(Kieran cooed his admiration.)

I've been fascinated at how learning ties together across disciplines. Blending sounds and listening for syllabication in the first few lessons helped her over a bump in her Suzuki piano journey! It was fun to see the connection as the two challenges clicked simultaneously! Suddenly, upon learning some basic phonics blending, she began to correctly distinguish rhythms on her Twinkle Twinkle Variations. (Something that had stumped her for months!)  Yeah, Keianna! 

I'm looking forward to this stage in the learning journey. Keianna is full of surprises, and I'm still discovering how her mind is wired. This special time of learning to read will be another window into my 'Anna's unique way of viewing the world!

Keianna has pretty much picked up all her letters and their sounds, so before she begins 100 Easy Lessons to learn to read she'll get to add a new letter to the "letter wall" every few days!  (She's been patient with her mommy.  With the eldest girls I introduced a couple letters per week and they mastered the alphabet and finished their "letter wall" in a few months.  With Keianna, I've drug this out for a year!)

I considered starting the lessons before finishing out the alphabet, but the children are always disappointed to reach Z and discover that their beloved alphabet comes to an end!   Being able to start "real school" is a consolation prize of sorts. 

Several people asked about the templates for the letters.  I make them using an openface font in Text Art in Wordperfect.   (Microsoft Word's Word Art does the same thing, but I'm odd enough to like Wordperfect better.)    I'm trying to figure out how to get them linked here online so that others can print them without duplicating the formatting work.   

As we decorated for Valentine's Day, I let Keianna decorate her newest addition to her "letter wall" with hearts.

Keianna, like her sisters before her, is learning to differentiate between those tricky lower case letters.

The standard methods for teaching children to distinguish lower case "b" from "d" and "p" from "q" haven’t worked for my toddlers. While my children have been ready to begin learning to read at around two and a half or three, the gimics and explanations traditionally taught in preschools haven’t worked at for their ages.

The word "bed" looking like a bed eludes them. So did the concept of "doughnuts" and "backs" or forming the letters with their hands. I have heard of some toddlers grasping these methods, but mine were bogged down by too much explanation, and needed something more concrete.

They did much better with just a little drill to recognize them by sight.

I make a bunch of "b"s and "d"s on card stock then cut out, as well as a single capital D and a capital B.  We place the "Mommy Letters" (capitals) on the floor and give our little abcdarian the deck of lower case letters.. Her task is to put the "babies with the right mommy." Basically a little matching game.

Here’s Keianna! She hasn’t quite made it to minding her "p"s and "q"s yet, but she’s working diligently on her "b"s and "d"s.

Keianna learns differently than my eldest two, but after being stuck for weeks on A, B, and C, she mastered them overnight.  It was fun to introduce D on Saturday! 

Here she is making her NEW LETTER!  Bits of paper bag were the medium du jour.  One letter at a time she's mastering upper case, lower case, and the sounds they make.  Knowing Keianna, she'll have spurts... stall out for month, then suddenly learn them as fast as I can present them!

Cheryl commented yesterday asking about the medium used for Keianna's most recent letter.  (The letter "C" happens to be decorated in little confetti hearts that I found lurking in the bottom of my craft drawer.) 

I’m sure the possibilities are endless, but I kept a list on file after my eldest did hers.  Somehow I just knew that without a list I would once again be stumped, wondering, "What shall we glue to the X?" Here are things I’ve used for my little abecedarians in previous years:

Rice

Sand

Cotton Balls

Sequins

Confetti

Pipe Cleaner Bits

Pistachio Nut Shells

Packing Peanuts

Excelsior

Curly Ribbon (Curl it first, then cut into short pieces)

Stars (cut with a craft punch from pretty paper)

Dried Beans (This one can get heavy for hanging on the wall)

Mini Clothes Pins

Aluminum Foil bits

Pencil Shavings

Paper Clips

Dried Floral/Potpourri

Popcorn (popped or unpopped)

Beads

Feathers

Pom Poms

Maccaroni

Plastic Bag Bits (Like walmart bags.. we used one that was a blue color)

Brown paper bag bits

Glitter

Colored Cotton Balls

Newsprint Bits

Soda Can tabs

Sponge Bits

Foam shapes (craft foam)

Once I even used pieces of a torn vinyl shower curtain.

Cheryl also wondered where to find an upper and lower case puzzle.  I can no longer remember where I purchased ours, but it is a Melissa & Doug just like this one at LiveandLearn.com (scroll down the page to see the puzzle). It is also sold by Amazon.

My 'Anna is quite proud of her ABCs!

As she learns each letter, she adds it to the wooden puzzle; reworking the puzzle each day using only the letters introduced thus far. 

Perhaps due to her eldest sister's fascination with sheep, Keianna spent longer on the letter "A" than I would have anticipated. She was insistent that it should say "Baa(h)" instead of "aa(h)"

Finally she figured it out, and we are onto Mommy "B" and Baby "b"!

She is so proud of her new letter!

Amethyst23 commented on our previous letter post about craft projects and mess, and I sure can relate! Messy crafts drive me bonkers. Therefore, even when we are doing these in winter (As Keianna's older sisters did), we do them on the deck. I fill the letters with glue first, and have a limited amount of whatever medium we are using in a small container so mess is minimized for my sanity's sake. 

The ritual of going OUTSIDE for each "new letter" is fun for them too.  (And it only takes about 5 minutes outside, so even in the snow we don't have to gear up much.)

Keianna is so much fun. A few nights ago at the " big girls' " piano recital, I kept having to physically restrain her. After each person played, the teacher would ask who would like to go next. Each time my Keianna started to hop off her chair saying, " 'Anna turn!"

I told her she could give her own recital at home, and she walked up to the piano, mimicking the children at the recital. With perfect form she introduced herself and her piece, "I 'Anna, an' I play Honeybee." (Honeybee is a song in the early Suzuki repertoire)

She's definately eager to start piano lessons next year!